Research on waste gas treatment technology and comprehensive environmental performance evaluation for collaborative management of pollution and carbon in China's pharmaceutical industry based on life cycle assessment (LCA)

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2024-04, Vol.919, p.170555-170555, Article 170555
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yuwei, Wang, Yibo, Zhang, Jiwen, Liu, Jingyang, Ruan, Jiuli, Jin, Xiaoxian, Liu, Dong, Lu, Zhaoyang, Xu, Zunzhu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: carbon; Carbon reduction and carbon neutrality; China; Collaborative management; environment; environmental impact; environmental law; environmental performance; environmental protection; evolution; financial economics; Life cycle assessment; Pharmaceutical industry; pollution; Waste gas pollution treatment
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170555

China is the largest industrial and pharmaceutical country in the world. The pharmaceutical industry, being a highly polluting sector, is the primary target of environmental regulation in the industry. The rapid development of pharmaceutical industry has posed a severe challenge to the environmental protection strategy of “carbon reduction and carbon neutrality” and the goal of “synergizing the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions” in China's “14th Five-Year Plan”. Therefore, this paper starts from the whole industry, takes the life cycle of the whole production process of the pharmaceutical industry as the guidance, and selects a pharmaceutical company in Tianjin as the research object. Then using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to Characterization, Standardization, and Weighting the environmental impact of the waste gas treatment process before and after improvement based on waste gas emission characteristics from the pharmaceutical factory. LCA results show that GWP and AP are the most important environmental impact types, which account for >85 % of the total characterization value. I and II - Chemical Pharmaceutical Stage is the critical life cycle stage, accounting for over 80 % of the total characteristic values. This research proposes emission reduction countermeasures based on LCA results and simulates Emission reduction scenarios and economic evolution. If effectively implementing emission reduction countermeasures, reducing the environmental characterization value by 80 to 90 %, and generating economic benefit of 2.66 × 108 RMB/year. This research could guide improvement plans and emission reduction countermeasures of waste gas treatment in the pharmaceutical industry, which realizes collaborative management about efficient reduction of pollution and carbon and generates significant environmental, technological, economic, and social benefits. [Display omitted] •Guide improvement plans and emission reduction countermeasures of waste gas treatment in the pharmaceutical industry•Realizing collaborative management about efficient reduction of pollution and carbon in pharmaceutical industry•Improved waste gas treatment process under concept of “synergizing the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions.”•Identify the key stages and main environmental impacts of waste gas treatment in pharmaceutical industry.•Realize strategic goal of “peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality” in pharmaceutical industry.